Thought-provoking titles accompany 'Recovery' exhibit at the Museum of Mobile

Beginning today, the Museum of Mobile, located at 111 South Royal Street, will host “Recovery: The World Trade Center Recovery Operation,” a traveling exhibit documenting the historic project to recover human remains, personal objects and material evidence from the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings. The exhibit will open at 10 a.m. Thanks to a generous donation by ThyssenKrupp, all local first responders and their families will be given free admission to the “Recovery” exhibit for the first week.

For the most part, the publishing world has approached today’s commemoration of the September 11 terrorist attacks with muted tones. Many have simply opted to reissue earlier books with updated materials or thought-provoking additions. This more contemplative approach is a refreshing change from the first anniversary in 2002, when publications littered the landscape, making the truly worthwhile books about 9/11 difficult to find. A marketing executive for a large bookseller recently praised her profession’s low-key approach to the 10th anniversary: “The books being published now seem to have a real sense of purpose – preserving the memory and celebrating the heroes.”

The Shop in the Southern Market, located inside the Museum of Mobile, will carry several impressive books that complement the “Recovery” exhibit. All of the titles do indeed carry a real sense of purpose and, taken together, represent part of the collective memory of that fateful September morning.

Damon DiMarco’s “Tower Stories: An Oral History of 9/11” (Santa Monica Press, $27.95) is a compelling compilation of long interviews with New Yorkers who witnessed the attacks firsthand, many from inside the World Trade Center. William F. Buckley praised “Tower Stories,” now in its second edition, for its “editorial acuity.” DiMarco preserves the tone of each of his many subjects. He presents their recollections in a near raw form, leaving everything – their political views, fears, prejudices and oftentimes colorful language – intact. One of the more well-known stories covered in the book is of Polish immigrant Jan Demczur, a window washer at the World Trade Center who helped free several people from an elevator shaft just before the North Tower collapsed.

“The Legacy Letters: Messages of Life and Hope from 9/11 Family Members” (Perigee Group, $22.00) is a collection of 100 letters to family members and friends who died in the terrorist attacks. The book is a project of Tuesday’s Children, a nonprofit organization that supports families affected by global acts of terrorism. “The Legacy Letters” is a heart-wrenching book. The most difficult letters in the collection come from small children. Derek Statkevicus was born in January 2002, several months after his father died when the South Tower collapsed. “I wish I could have met you,” Derek’s letter begins. “It makes me sad that I don’t even have a picture of the two of us together.” Kayla Fallon wrote a letter to her father, William, while sitting in her college English class during a discussion of 9/11: “For many, it is just another sad story. But to me, it is where the road between my old life and my new one began. My old life involved seeing you every day. My new life is different.” “The Legacy Letters” chronicles 9/11 at perhaps its most basic element – the empty chair in the living room, the individual personal loss in the midst of a national tragedy.

Two of the books deal specifically with first responders. Dennis Smith’s best-selling “Report from Ground Zero” (Plume, $17.00) is a gripping account of the Fire Department of New York. On September 11, Smith, a retired firefighter, went to Ground Zero as a volunteer. His book contains a day-by-day account of the rescue and recovery efforts, recording countless acts of heroism. “Above Hallowed Ground: A Photographic Record of September 11, 2001” (Penguin, $35.00) presents a photographic history of the attacks in New York City from the unique vantage point of the NYPD’s team of photographers. There are several arresting photographs in the book, including an aerial of the Fresh Kills Landfill on Staten Island, where many of the artifacts in the “Recovery” exhibit were obtained. Another series of images captures the rescue of John McLoughlin, the last person pulled alive from the wreckage. Rescue workers hover around the injured man, who had been buried under the rubble for more than 20 hours, as if they knew he would be the last survivor.

Americans still hunger for more information about the attacks. It was this desire for greater understanding that transformed “The 9/11 Commission Report” (paper, $31.95) into one of the best-selling books of 2004.

The books that accompany “Recovery: The World Trade Center Recovery Operation” during its 3-month run at the Museum of Mobile provide both thought-provoking questions and respectful commemoratives of the solemn occasion. Ten years after the attacks, we turn to books such as these, perhaps seeking explanation or closure on the printed page.